


Space holidays

by BirdDameron



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Kind of a character study, pretty fluffy, space holidays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-10-31 22:22:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10908642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdDameron/pseuds/BirdDameron
Summary: Finn navigates the world of the resistance- via learning about holidays. Poe helps.





	1. Mother's Day

**Author's Note:**

> Some chapters may be romantic, some may be general, every chapter is a different holiday, I'll probably update on or around those holidays.

“Hey Jess, have you seen Poe today? I got up before him and when I got back from breakfast he was gone, but I didn’t see him at breakfast” Finn jogged up to the pilot as she worked on her x-wing.  
Jess grimaced as she put all of her weight behind the wrench, finally getting whatever part she was working on to move. “Well” she said, “It’s mother’s day, so he’s probably commed his father.”  
“What’s Mother’s Day?” Finn handed her the clean version of the part she’d just removed.  
“Thanks,” she said, “Mother’s day is a holiday that started on Alderaan. Its basically a day to say thank you to your mom for raising you and all that, get her presents, make her food, that sort of deal.”  
“Oh,” Finn said, reminded with a pang that he didn’t know who his mother was pr if she was even still alive, “well then why did you make a face?”  
Jess sighed, “Poe’s mom died when he was a kid, this is always a bad day for him and his dad. The General’s probably having an awful time of it too.”  
“because of Ren?”  
“Yeah, and she’s also been like a mother to Poe, which just, is complicated. Especially today.”  
“Yeah.”  
Finn sighed.  
After a moment of silence Jess said, “Go find Poe, he probably needs a hug.”  
Finn smiled a little at that, and saluted Jess before turning and walking off.

Poe wiped his eyes with his sleeve as he ended the comm call with his father. He’d gone up to the roof of one of the buildings near the edge of the base to talk without being disturbed, or disturbing anyone else. He sighed, looking up at the morning sky and taking a gulp of his long since cold caff. “I miss you, Mama, you wouldn’t believe everything that’s happened.”   
He sat like that for a while, cross legged on the roof, a cup of caff and his comm-unit in front of him. “I oughtta do something for Leia” he said to no one in particular, or maybe to his mother. But he didn’t get up.  
Poe heard the roof access door open and accompanying footsteps, and turned to look, annoyed that someone had found his spot, but it was Finn. “Hey” he said with a weak smile, unable to be mad at Finn.  
“Hey yourself. You doing okay?”  
“Jess tell you?”  
“yeah, but only because I asked. She didn’t tell me any details.”  
Poe sighed, then nodded at the spot next to him, indicating for Finn to sit.  
Finn took the offered spot, and put his arm around Poe’s shoulders, squeezing him in a one-armed hug. Poe leaned into his touch briefly, before pulling away slightly to reach or his caff.   
“Oh,” Finn said, “I brought you something to eat, I didn’t see you get breakfast and I thought- thought you might be hungry” Finn didn’t say I thought if you didn’t eat you wouldn’t reach your optimal caloric intake for the day, because he’d started to realize that was considered weird.  
“Thanks, Buddy” Poe said with a lopsided smile, taking the protein bar Finn had fished out of his pocket. “Hey, hazelnut, one of the tolerable flavors!”  
“Sorry, they were portable”  
“Its alright, I’m just griping”  
They sat in comfortable silence, shoulder to shoulder, as Poe finished his breakfast.  
After a while Poe asked “How’d you find me up here anyway?”  
“I’m not really sure, it just, felt like the right place to look?”  
Poe smiled a little to himself, suspecting, not for the first time, that Luke might have two padawans to teach once Rey dragged him back to civilization. But what he said was, “you know me too well then.”  
Finn glanced at him oddly.  
“Well,” Poe continued, “I like it up here, its peaceful, away from all the noise of the base. Its got a nice view too.”  
They both looked out over the expanse of forest in front of them, and the wide sky above.   
“at night you can see the stars”  
Finn glanced over at Poe, who seemed to have gotten lost in his own little world, staring up at the blue expanse of sky. Finn had come to notice Poe got immersed in his own thoughts a lot, Jess called him “spacey”  
“I feel like I should do something for Leia- the general, for mother’s day, but I also feel like its kinda a betrayal to my own mother, and it’d just bring up bad memories of Ben, but at the same time it might help cheer her up a bit, and she’s always been like a mother to me you know? Even when Mama was still around it was almost like I had three parents, four if you count Han.” Poe sighed again, obviously remembering Han too now.  
“If your mother was anything like you I think she’d be happy if you did something for General Organa, and I don’t she’d take it as an insult, but be glad that somebody stepped in to help you and your dad”  
Poe smiled, genuinely this time, his eyes crinkling, “yeah, that’s what Papa said.”  
“What’s it like?” Finn asked, blurting out the question before he could stop himself, “to have parents, to have a family?”  
Poe’s smile fell a little, but didn’t go away entirely. “Its having people who love you and would do anything for you. People who hold you when you’re scared and reassure you, people who’re proud of your achievements, people who worry about you when you’re not there or when you’re doing something dangerous. Its support, and someone telling you to eat your vegetables even if they taste gross because they’re good for you and taking care of you when you get sick. Its somebody you can talk to whenever, about almost anything, but sometimes you don’t tell them things because you care about them too and you want their approval and you don’t want them to worry about you.”  
Finn stared off into the distance, “I wish I’d had that, I wish I’d had a mother.”  
Poe put his hand on Finn’s shoulder, “You do now buddy, we’re your family. Me and Rey, and Jess and the general, hell I think Snap and Karé want to adopt you”  
Finn smiled a little, and put his hand over Poe’s, “You’re right, we should do something for general Organa.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah.”  
Poe helped Finn up, “well what should we do”  
“Can you cook?”  
“Can I cook? Can R2 cuss? Course I can cook!”  
Finn grinned, glad Poe was back in a good mood.  
“What does General Organa like”  
“hmm…”

“What’s this?” Leia asked, walking into the living area of her quarters to Finn, Poe, and BB-8 standing behind a vast array of food and an extravagant arrangement of flowers. And a blaster with a ribbon taped haphazardly to it.   
BB-8 chirped as Poe walked around the table, “Happy mother’s day, Leia,” He said, hugging her.  
Leia smiled, “did you three make all this yourselves?” keeping an arm around Poe.  
BB-8 beeped happily in assent as Finn nodded, “well Poe did most of the cooking but…”  
Leia laughed, “well why thank you,” she gestured to Finn, and he walked over to her and Poe, and was immediately enveloped in a hug by the both of them.   
If there were some tears, nobody mentioned it.


	2. Father's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe introduces Finn to his dad, in hopes of helping him find a family/place he feels at home. dialogue heavy.

“Hey Finn” Poe sat down next to Finn in the mess hall, setting down his tray full of pancakes and a large cup of caff, “I’ve got a meeting this morning and then I’ve gotta make some repairs on Black One, but can you remind me to comm my dad at some point today? It’s Father’s Day and I wanted to say hi and ask him whether the stuff I sent him had gotten to Yavin IV yet.”  
Finn nodded, “Yeah, I’ll remind you. Is father’s day like Mother’s Day?”  
“Yep” Poe said around a mouthful of pancake. He swallowed, then continued, “You wanna talk to my dad? I’m sure he’d like to ask you all sorts of questions about how I’m a mess and tell you how to keep me alive.” Poe said it casually, but his leg was bouncing under the table, a sure sign of anxiety.  
Finn made a mental note to ask someone- Leia probably- whether meeting your friend’s parents was significant. He smiled and said, “sure, we could trade stories of you being a human disaster,” bumping Poe’s shoulder with his own.  
Poe groaned dramatically, grinning, “Oh force why did I suggest this, he’s gonna tell you every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.”

Later, Poe was just finishing repainting Black One after having repaired it and fixed any superficial damage to the exterior, when Finn walked up, “You take better care of that x-wing than you do yourself”  
bb-8 chirped their agreement.  
Poe brushed his hair out of his face, getting a streak of orange paint across his forehead and said, “why do I feel like you two are ganging up on me?”  
Finn and bb-8 looked at one another, then finn said, “we are, we totally are. Hey, you were gonna talk to your dad?”  
Poe smacked himself in the face, “Oh yeah, just… lemme finish up here first.”  
“Alright,” Finn sat on the floor next to bb-8, who beeped slowly at him.  
“Hey I understood that!”  
Poe finished painting, “they’re training you” and stuck out a paint and engine grease covered hand to help Finn up.  
Bb-8 chirped  
Finn took the proffered hand, and pulled himself up.  
“Wanna go to the roof?”  
The roof had become their unofficial spot. Finn nodded, and followed Poe out of the hangar.  
A blue hologram of and older man with Poe’s nose flickered up.  
“Hey! Papa, how’re you doing, happy father’s day!”  
Kes Dameron smiled at his son, and Finn noticed Poe’d gotten that too, from him.  
“I’ve been relatively good, life’s been uneventful”  
Poe was about to respond, then he paused, squinting at his father’s image, “Sithspit, dad are you growing your hair out?”  
“Language, Poe, and yes, I am”  
Poe’s grin didn’t falter, “Hey you’re outgrowing the regimented military stuff. And I’m 32 Pa, I can say what I want.”  
“not if you don’t want to give your old man a heart attack”  
“You’ve said worse! And if me cussing is gonna give you a heart attack you really should go to a doctor, cuz I do a lot of reckless shit”  
Kes sighed, “I’m trying.” Then he noticed Finn, “Who’s this, Poe?”  
“This is Finn-”  
“The Finn you never shut up about?”  
Poe blushed scarlet, and Kes grinned. Finn wasn’t entirely sure what his face was doing.  
“He never shuts up about you, he’s quite taken wi-”  
“Dad stop it” Poe was even redder, if that were possible.  
“Is he blushing? I can’t tell through this damn comm unit, everything’s blue.”  
“He’s definitely blushing” Finn said.  
“You’re not helping, Finn” Poe said, hiding his face in his hands.  
“Anyway…” Kes said, as if they’d just been talking about the weather, “Why is my son covered in paint?”  
“He was repainting Black One.”  
“ah, so he wasn’t thoughtfully making be a gift for father’s day.” Kes’s teasing was obvious even to Finn.  
“Did the gift I sent not get to you yet?” Poe asked.  
Kes shook his head, “Supply ship hasn’t come yet this week.”  
Poe nodded, “I thought I’d sent it far enough in advance, but they probably bounced it around a couple of systems, secret military base and all” Poe wiggled his fingers on the word secret, and grinned.  
Kes smiled, “I’ll let you know when it arrives, if my holonet isn’t still giving me troubles. Next time you get leave you’re coming home to fix it. And bt-4.”  
“what’s wrong with beetee?”  
“Their visual processer is acting up again, poor thing keeps running into walls.”  
“Alright, I’ll fix everything. You know you don’t have to break your droids to get me to visit, papa.”  
“ha ha, Poe. How’s life on base?”  
“hectic, as usual. We got some new recruits, Finn’s training to be a pathfinder and we’ve discovered his talent for strategy.”  
“Well shut up and let me talk to him then, one pathfinder to another!”  
Poe laughed and leaned back against the cooling unit on the roof.  
Finn asked, “you were a pathfinder?”  
“yep, I was in the battle of Endor”  
“Really?”  
Poe smiled, staring out at the sunset over base, half listening to his father and Finn talk excitedly. This was a good idea, he thought to himself. Since Finn didn’t know his biological family, Poe decided that he’d help Finn find a new one, and figured that letting him join Poe’s was a good way to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so these chapters have been really about family, both found and biological. I'm thinking of doing a space version of Independence Day next. maybe the day the empire officially surrendered/lost or something. I'll probably publish near the 4th of July, since I'm American and that'll remind me.


	3. Independence Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bittersweet celebration of the official end of the empire.

Finn and Poe sat on the roof, their customary spot. It was morning, Finn lay on his stomach, watching the sunrise, marveling at how vibrant and colorful it was. Poe sat near him, legs hanging off the side of the roof, an empty plate and a water bottle next to him.  
“So what’s today?”  
“huh?” Poe turned to look at Finn.  
“well we got the morning off, and I looked at the schedule for today, it says dinner’s out on the field by the landing strip? So it’s gotta be some sort of a holiday.”  
Poe smiled, “Yeah, 30 years ago today the empire was officially dissolved. The rebels won, and we established the new republic.”  
“huh. So why’s dinner outside then?”  
Poe looked back at the horizon, “We usually have a picnic, its kind of tradition. Then there are fireworks, sometimes back in the New Republic army we’d do air shows- show off in the x-wings and stuff, fancy flying.”  
Finn got up, coming over and sitting cross-legged next to Poe, “We never celebrated that, but we did kind of celebrate, if you can call it that, the beginning of the empire. Growing up I was never sure whether it had ended or not.”  
Poe sighed, “Its starting to feel like it didn’t.”  
“yeah.”  
They sat on the roof in silence for a while, before Poe stood, saying “I’m gonna take advantage of the morning off and do some repair work on Black One, alright?”  
“okay” Finn waved as Poe left. He sat for a bit longer, then got up, full of restless energy and unused to having leisure time.

That evening, Finn joined Poe and the rest of his pilots next to the tarmac. He looked around at the grassy field, taking in the grill, and a few tables with food, plates and cutlery, and the blankets and towels spread on the ground. “Uh, guys?” He asked, “where are we supposed to eat? Where are the tables?”  
Pava looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Then she grinned, “what do you think the blankets are for, we’re sitting on the ground! Very casual like.”  
Karé hit Jess lightly on the arm, “Pava, don’t be shitty. Did Poe forget to explain picnics? Here, we grab our food from the tables, and we bring it back here to eat. Just like the mess hall, except with way less healthy food and we sit on the ground. Have you had bantha burger before? They’re pretty good. C’mon, lets go get food while Poe and Snap set up our blanket.”  
Poe grinned at Finn, who looked a little overwhelmed, “sorry, buddy”  
Finn shrugged, “eh, its okay, this is all just very… new, still. I’m just along for the ride.”  
Jess slapped him on the back, “That’s the spirit, now lets go get us some grub!”  
The three of them got in line, waiting for their turn to get food, Jess and Karé arguing over what everyone wanted, whether or not Snap liked ketchup, Finn looked over the food. Most of it was pretty alien, but he recognized the chips, most of the vegetables, and the carbonated drinks Poe drank so much of. Finn personal thought that the carbonation felt weird, but Poe liked them, especially the yellow one with all the caffeine. He grabbed one of those, and a water for himself, putting them on the tray Jess was holding, as Karé weighed it down with various foodstuffs.   
They wandered back over to Snap and Poe, having acquired more food than would fit on one tray. Finn was carrying the excess.   
Poe had just laid down a brightly pattered quilt, and Snap had gotten a cooler from somewhere, and had brought out a bunch of pillows. Karé flopped down onto the center of the quilt, “we brought food.”  
“Finn and I brought food, actually” Jess said, mock glaring at Karé, “You’re all lucky I have strong arms.” She set the tray down on top of the cooler and started passing out food.  
“If any of you spill anything on my quilt I’m repairing it with your flight suits. And my mother will slap you from beyond the grave.” Poe warned, taking a burger and drink.   
“yessir commander sir” Snap said with a grin.  
Jess stuck her tongue out at Poe, sitting down cross-legged, leaning against the cooler with a bowl of bright blue chips in her lap.  
Finn sat next to Poe with his water and a bantha burger. He was slightly confused as to why the meat was between two rolls, but figured it was the same concept as a sandwich, only fluffier. Jess had recommended mustard, so he’d put some of that on it too.  
He looked at the burger appraisingly, before carefully taking a small bite. Around a mouthful of food, he said, “ ‘s really good!”  
Poe grinned, then raised his eyebrows, laughing, as Finn devoured the rest of the burger.   
They ate, and talked through the sunset, and then, as the sun disappeared from view, and everyone was finished eating, a few people went over to the other side of the landing strip. Finn saw them arranging something, a shower of sparkles, and a fuse was lit.  
“Hey Kun, you ready for the fireworks?” Snap asked, bumping Karé’s shoulder with his own.  
“Hell yes! Light it up!” She pumped her fist in the air.  
Poe ignored them in favor of looking around, “It’s quieter than usual,” he said softly to Finn, “Normally there’s more drunken yelling.”  
“I’m glad there’s not” Finn said, trying to imagine this, but even louder.  
Poe smiled a little lopsided smile, “on the one hand yes, but on the other its more… subdued. With the first Order, and what happened to Hosnian System… I guess the New Republic isn’t as secure as we thought it was. We’re back in the middle of it all.” Then he smiled more brightly, “When I was a kid, there were fireworks and light-shows, dancing and revelry until the next morning even. Luke and Han would tell crazy stories, and Leia and Wedge would just laugh at them, my parents would tell their own stories, and correct the exaggerations, it was a lot of fun. Lots of Republic themed everything, tons of food and picnics…” He trailed off, lost in the memory of it.  
Finn watched him for a minute. Then there was a loud bang and a flash of lights. Finn jumped, looking around wildly, thinking they were under attack. Poe had his hands over his ears, but he was smiling, until he saw Finn’s reaction. He grabbed Finn’s shoulder, “Whoa there, its just the fireworks, theyre really loud!”  
As if on cue, there was another bang and a dazzling shower of blue sparks in the sky. Finn put his hands over his ears, Poe did the same, grinning.  
“They’re really pretty!” Finn yelled over the increasing din of the fireworks and people cheering.


End file.
